


The First Time AU

by AGeorgeHale



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, The First Time AU, The Fitzsimmons Rom-Com Challenge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 22:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8030599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AGeorgeHale/pseuds/AGeorgeHale
Summary: Leo Fitz is a high school senior who is nursing an unrequited love over Callie Hannigan. Jemma Simmons has an older boyfriend Milton, who not only has a cabbage-shaped head but also only cares of himself.  They meet one random Friday night party and a casual conversation sparks an instant connection.





	The First Time AU

Jemma Simmons can’t believe that she let her friend talk her into going out on a Friday night, she thinks, as she walks through the door into the living room. She sees couples making out in every surface of the room. Ugh. She smirks internally when a girl yanks the hair of a guy (presumably her boyfriend) who she catches playing tonsil hockey with another girl.

Jemma makes her way towards the patio where underaged teens are drinking near the pool area. Seems like a bad combo. Girls in skimpy bikinis shriek and splash. More couples in various states of undress groping and moaning in dark corners. If she didn’t know any better, she’d swear that this is the hedonistic scene from The Ten Commandments. The only thing missing is the golden calf.

I need some air, she muses, while opening the wooden gate that will lead her out of the house.

==

Leo Fitz paces back and forth, almost wearing out the concrete in the alley. His mouth silently moves while running down the words in his head. He pauses and fishes out a piece of paper from his back pocket. The paper looks worse for wear, with multiple crease lines, looking like it has been folded and refolded hundreds of times. He reads something off the paper while scratching the back of his head, mumbles something incoherent, before shoving the paper back in his pocket and resuming his pacing back and forth.

“It’s the way that you.. It’s the way that you… ah shit.. It’s the amazing way that you...”, he mutters under his breath.

“Who are you talking to?”

Fitz jumps back and clutches his chest, “Ah..Jesus! You scared the crap out of me!”

“Sorry,” the interloper shrugs.

“No, no, it’s alright, I thought I was alone,” he explains. He takes in his intruder, about four inches shorter than him, brunette (as far as it looks under a lonely street lamp), adjusting the shoulder strap of her messenger bag, one that belongs more in homeroom than on a Friday night party.

“So you’re talking to no one?”

“No,” he says it more like a question rather than a convincing statement.

“You go to Humphrey?”

“Yeah. Lexinburg?”

“North. Do you know whose party this is?” 

What is this? Twenty questions? he thinks. “Not a clue. How about you?” Two can play this game.

“No, no, I don’t know… I just dropped by with some friends. Not some friends really . Just some girls. They might be whores. Or at least whorish.” She prattles while rolling her eyes.

“Yeah. The guys I hang out with...it’s like we drive around all night calling everyone we know just looking for some party. Any party, you know, then ‘Hey, party!’ when we finally find one. We get here but then we don’t know anyone, so we stand around and eventually just leave and go try find some other party.”

“Silly. Why do you do it?” She says with a small smile. 

He shrugs. “What else are you gonna do, right?” “Why did you come out tonight?”

“I don’t know a laugh, maybe, but I’m not looking for a boyfriend. I’ve got someone, I mean kinda. I have a dude,” she replies, dragging the word ‘dude’ far longer than its single syllable.

“Who?” he asks. “Why?” she counters. 

“Maybe I know him.”

“You don’t,” she says a bit defensively. “He’s older,” like it explains everything. “So why aren’t you there right now? You know, putting some moves on some waify sophomore with low self esteem?”

“Yeah, no. I just have one girl I’m kind of interested in.”

“What’s her name?”

“Callie,” he answers with reverence.

“Caalliee Smith?”

“Hannigan.”

“Sooooo... what’s your name?” she asks, while shuffling her foot against the concrete.

“Fitz. Leo Fitz, actually, but I go by Fitz”

“Fitz, it is. I’m Jemma. Jemma Simmons.”

“Jenna.”

“JeMMa.”

“Jemma.”

“Yeah”

“And you go to North? Senior?”

“Yeah”

“Right. Of course, you are. Although you look like you can’t be more than 16.” 

“What is that supposed to mean? Am I not mature enough for you?”

“No. Of course not. I mean, no, of course you are. It’s just that you don’t have that look in your eye. You know?” he explains.

“Not sure I do.”

“The desperate, kind of demented look. Whoo! I’m a senior,” hands gesticulating like a crazy person, “Graduating in less than a month and all the nights of drunken high school parties are almost over!”

“You got that look,” she points out.

“Right?”

“So this girl Callie? She, ah, she doesn’t like you back?”

“She likes me. Platonically. As a friend”

“Oh, I know what platonically means. I’m a senior not a moron.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s cool, Fitz. So have you tried? Like actually tried?”

“She’s gonna hook up with Donnie Gill tonight.”

“Ooh. I have a friend who hooked up with Donnie Gill once.”

“There you go,” Fitz says dejectedly.

“He is ripped,” she says, eyes closed as if savoring the image of Donnie’s hypothetical six-pack abs.

Fitz squints at her incredulously, “What are you…? What are you doing to me?”

She holds up her hands, palms up front in apology, “Sorry.. I’m just saying if she hooks up with Donnie Gill.. I’m not getting my hopes up.”

He kicks an imaginary stone off the ground. “Well trust me… they’re not.. Up. that’s why I’m out here.”

She snorts at that. “That’s why you’re hiding”

Fitz can’t help but be defensive. “I’m not hiding!” 

“Fleeing?”

“No. fleeing?”

“Yeah”

“I ju.. I can’t… I had to get out of there. I can’t exactly stand around and watch the girl that I am in love with flirt with the best looking guy ever. It’s torture!”

 

Jemma fishes something out of her messenger bag. “Want some gum?”

“No, thanks.”

He walks away from her, runs his hand through his hair before turning abruptly towards her again. “You know what.. Yeah actually.” 

He reaches out to take the gum she’s offering. Their fingers briefly touched, and as if burned, both quickly retreated. They start chewing their gums in awkward silence. 

“Ah… I should get back inside before you know they leave without me,” she points at the gate with her thumb and starts walking towards the gate.

Fitz reaches out an arm to stop her, “Actually hey… let me ask you a question.”

Jemma looks back at him, eyes questioningly.

“Do you think it’s possible.. Is there something that I could say to this girl? Something so that I could tell her how I feel in a way that would make her fall in love with me? You know?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Here,” Fitz pulls out the paper from his pocket, smooths it out, clutches it by the sides with his two hands.

“Wow.” Jemma looks at the paper, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

“Callie, Cal, lately I've been feeling like there's so much noise, ya know? Uh so much static. all these voices competing for attention. teachers, parents, magazines. what's in, what's out, who's cool, who's not cool enough... and it's like all this shit gets so loud I feel like I can't even hear myself think. I just want to get in my car and drive... but then I see you, I see you across the hall leaning against your locker... in that jacket that you love so much... and the way you tuck your hair back behind your ears... then you see me and you smile just smile and it's like, it's like all that noise fades away ya know... and then the only thing I can hear is the sound of your voice when you call out my name.”

Fitz looks at Jemma expectantly, his face unsure. An awkward silence passes between them while Jemma’s face contorts from uncomfortable to what can he can only describe as pity. Her mouth opens, seemingly wanting to form a word, yet no sound came out.

“Uhm,” she tries, while looking at him hesitantly.

Fitz feels like his face is fifty shades of red. “Uh no oh oh my god I’m too embarrassed to even live.”

Jemma reaches out her hands toward his arms but not quite touching them. “No”, she placates

“I can’t believe I just said that!”

“No.”

“Out loud. I mean even to you. I can’t believe I was going to say that to her.. I was!” He feels sick, knees begin to weaken a little bit. He doesn’t even fight gravity when it seemingly pulls his but towards the ground. Legs half-stretched in front of him, he places his elbows on his knees and hides his face in his hands in equal frustration and mortification.

Jemma looks down at him, then looks around at nothing. She quickly tries to think what advice she can give to somebody she just met not quite ten minutes ago. Deciding, she takes a knee in front of him and places a hand on his shoulder, offering moral support. “Ok. it’s not that.. It’s just that, she doesn’t care about.. She doesn’t really care about that shit, you know? The ways and the magazines? And she definitely doesn’t want to hear about how beautiful you think she is when she tucks her hair back. I don’t think she wants to hear anything. All she wants is to be a little less freaked out than she already does. Which is probably very. Which means she’d want to be with a guy who is less freaked out than her. And if you can be that guy, then rad! But if you can’t, then, you’re not going to be her dude.”

He removes his hands from his face and looks at her. “I am never going to be her dude, am I?”

“Not with that attitude, my friend, no. And you’re a senior so pretty sure that ship has sailed. Maybe in college you can reinvent yourself to be more of a doer than a talker.”

“Maybe,” he shrugs. “Well, you should probably get back or if you’re worried that your friends are gonna leave,” he looks towards the house. He shuffles backwards until his back is against the wall.

“You asked for my opinion!”

“No, I was just going to say that you can catch a ride home with me.”

She considers his offer. “Hmm. Well, those whores won’t leave without me… but I have to go around and unhook them and I don’t feel like that doing that,“ liking his idea more and more.

“Then don’t.” 

“Then I won’t,” she decides.

“Great.”

“Ok.”

“Ok.” Jemma takes a sit beside him.

They were quiet for a moment. Muffled shouts and laughter can be heard from the house, then the first keys of “Oh, my love” by The Concretes plays from the sound system..

Jemma closes her eyes and listens. “This song is amazing,” she says quietly.

“This song is amazing,” he agrees.

She looks at him, “Amazing,” in almost a whisper.

When asked in a later time, Fitz wouldn’t be able to explain why his next question was, “Want to dance with me? I don’t know… do you want to dance with me?”

Jemma balks, “Uhm... no.”

“Why?”

“Well, uhm... uh-uh,” while shaking her head.

“Wow,” he leans his head against the wall, “Way to build up my confidence. Which is lacking… it was lacking! You pointed it out...”

“It’s just that I don’t dance publicly and I don’t do.. I don’t do PDA either,” she quickly explains. “Those couples, they make me nauseous. It’s like, ‘Really guys? You’re just gonna make out right there in the freakin’ mall in front of everybody?’ Ugh,” rolling her eyes. 

“First of all, we’re all alone here. Second of all, I’m just talking about one dance.”

She stands up and walks away from him. Fitz follows her with his eyes while thinking game over. She stops under the light of the street lamp. She faces him and asks, “Well?”

He jumps up, pats the seat of his trousers and walks towards her. Once in front of her, he loosely wraps his arms around her waist and clasps his hands against the small of her back. She, in turn, tentatively raises her arms before placing it around his neck, one hand holding the wrist of the other, resting them against his nape.

They slowly move, shuffling their feet side to side. For a few seconds, all both can hear is the soft strains of the music while looking at each other’s eyes. 

“This is the weirdest... This is the cheesiest thing ever.. All we need now is some rain--” 

“--Just deal with it.” Then, his phone rings.

“Your balls are vibrating.”

They jumped back away from each other. He pulls his phone from his pocket and reads the message. “Uhm...” 

“What?”

“Ahh, it’s just that cops are here,” he answers.

“Where is your car?” Jemma asked him, slightly panicked.

“Oh, I didn’t drive. The Englishman did,” Way to be cryptic, Fitz.

“What?”

“The bloody Englishman.” Yes, that’s more helpful.

“Who?”

Before he can answer, a throng of people, rushes out the tiny gate. 

“They’re taking everybody’s name! It’s every man for himself! Let’s go! What’s wrong with you, assholes! Let’s go,” one guy shouts then streaks away from the house.

Jemma and Fitz exchanged quick looks before following suit.

**Author's Note:**

> The First Time (2012) is a really good, somewhat coming of age movie, starring Dylan O'Brien and Britt Robertson. As a trivia, this is the movie in which they met and fell in love. A quick Google search tells me that they are still together. If the cosmos is listening, I hope the same happens to Iain and Elizabeth.
> 
> In Chapter 1, the dialogue is almost verbatim to the opening scene of the movie. I'm going to paraphrase in later chapters. Partly to minimize copyright infringement, partly laziness... it's hard work to pause and transcribe.
> 
> The chapter titles come from the movie's soundtrack which is also amazing.


End file.
